World of Warcraft‘s latest legal action has fans fuming. Blizzard has filed a lawsuit against the owners of Turtle WoW, a fan project to provide unofficial classic WoW servers. With thousands of players across ten servers, and its very own original expansion, Mysteries of Azeroth, Turtle WoW has become a popular, free alternative to Blizzard’s official servers.

However, as of August 29, Blizzard had sued the creators of Turtle WoW, alleging several counts of copyright infringement and referring to it as a “pirate server” that “illegally uses [Blizzard’s] code, assets, and trademarks” in a statement to Windows Central. Fan reactions to the lawsuit are almost universally negative, including in Screen Rant‘s own comment section, with user Odin going so far as to say, “And with this final stroke by Activision, WoW is finally dead.”

WoW’s New Lawsuit Is Already Stirring Up Controversy

What The Lawsuit Means For Turtle WoW

Turtle WoW launched its first unofficial server, the roleplaying and PvE-focused Nordanaar, on October 6, 2018. Multiple other servers would soon follow, including PvP-focused servers and regional variants that attracted players from around the world.

These servers function as a free alternative to Blizzard’s official WoW Classic servers, which were launched in 2019 and require a subscription fee to play.

Turtle WoW eventually got its own expansion, Mysteries of Azeroth. Its developers were also planning a 2.0 version that employed Unreal Engine 5 for improved visuals.

In recent days, Turtle WoW experienced a sudden surge in popularity, reaching over 44,000 concurrent players in August (also via Windows Central). This coincided with the launch of a new roleplaying and PvE server, Ambershire, back in August.

What Fans Are Saying About Turtle Wow Lawsuit

“Not A Surprise, But Greatly Disappointing”

Fan responses to Blizzard’s lawsuit against the creators of Turtle WoW have been overwhelmingly negative, with many claiming that the unofficial servers offered a superior experience.

For example, Turtle WoW’s human moderators have done well when it comes to preventing bots and real money trading from taking over their servers, a task that many claim Blizzard’s AI moderators have been struggling to keep up with.

A few fans spoke up in Screen Rant‘s comment section on an article about the lawsuit, with commenter joe echoing that sentiment. “Blizz are embarrassed that Turtle WoW provides a better experience for free over WoW Classic.”

Still, the lawsuit was to be expected, as some players had been sounding the alarm about Blizzard’s potential infringement claims against Turtle WoW for almost as long as the unofficial servers have existed. User Odin called the legal action “certainly not a surprise, but greatly disappointing nonetheless.”

Another commenter, Asher, implies that Turtle WoW is the superior server provider due to some of Blizzard’s business practices outside of its management of WoW Classic. “I would care if Blizzard didn’t sell your account info. They don’t deserve my money.”

One commenter, Felxstorm, did see a silver lining, comparing this to the lawsuit that shut down the unofficial Nostalrius server in 2016. The reveal of WoW Classic followed soon after, which could suggest that an upgraded version is on its way soon.

Either way, players of Turtle WoW are scrambling. With the stability of its servers uncertain, and a game-changing lawsuit impending, the future of unofficial World of Warcraft servers isn’t looking bright.

World of Warcraft

Systems

Released

November 23, 2004

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)

Engine

Unreal Engine

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

pc, ps